Compost Heap

This article is meta information, and is written out-of-world.

Sometimes the first ideas aren't the best ones (in fact I would say they rarely are), and there have been a lot of ideas floated across the dinner table and during long car rides with the kind of creative family that the author and illustrator have. For every Florabeast that was agreed upon as brilliant, there seemed to be two more that weren't quite up to snuff. And rather than just delete and forget about them, they have been lovingly preserved here forever. Look upon the Florabeasts that might have been, or may yet be if we completely run out of ideas later on!

• Chardapillar- Chard + Caterpillar
• Caterpillars aren't a distinct life form, they're a stage in the development of the butterfly's life cycle. If Florabeasts had something like evolution similar to a Pokémon, this might have worked, but since they don't, they had to be their own distinct species.
• Figlet- Fig + Pig(let)
• See above.
• Mullamb- Mullein + Lamb
• See above x2.
• Carrionberry- Marionberry + Vulture
• The Marionberry is a cultivar of blackberry introduced in Oregon in 1956, which is about 100 years too late for the era of the stories.
• Taillcat- Cattail + Cat
• This was just too obvious and not creative enough.
• Aubadgerine- Eggplant + Badger
• Though the joke is really good, it was deemed too complicated, plus I wanted to avoid mixing words from two different languages if possible.
• Camul Camul- Camu camu berry + Camel
• Again an excellent joke, but ultimately too obscure, as the camu camu berry isn't very well known in this country.
• Porcupea- Pea + Porcupine
• The porcupine was used for a different Florabeast, which meant this one had to change.
• Turkeylime- Lime + Turkey
• The basis of this joke was the Key Lime cultivar, which ended up being used for the Donkeylime instead.
• Cherrabbit- Cherry + Rabbit
• This sounded good at first, but the ''-ry" sound of cherry wasn't preserved.
• Pandapaya- Papaya + Panda
• Papayas and pandas aren't native to the same region, and the joke wasn't good enough to warrant combining the two together.
• Carrocat- Carrot + Cat
• This just wasn't clever enough, plus it sounded a lot like the Pokémon Torracat, which I have been trying to avoid.
• Monkeydew- Honeydew (Muskmelon) + Monkey
• "Honey" and "monkey" sort of rhyme, but not enough to make them into a Florabeast.
• Squishsquash/Squadsh- Squash + Squid
• I really wanted to make this into a joke, but it ended up being too unwieldy. Plus, there was a decision made to avoid aquatic Florabeasts as much as possible. No fish floating in mid-air here!
• Beaverbena- Verbena + Beaver
• Verbena ended up working much better with wolverine rather than beaver, so the Beavirch was born instead.
• Octocumber- Cucumber + Octopus
• The name of this one was a bit of a stretch, plus the same problem with aquatic beasts as Squadsh.
• Glovefox- Foxglove + Fox
• This was just too obvious of a combination.
• Peachilla- Peach + Chinchilla
• The chinchilla needed to be used for a much better Florabeast later on.
• Larkcherry- Cherry + Meadowlark
• Another attempt at a cherry Florabeast. Lark fit much better with another plant instead.
• Larkspur- Lark + Larkspur
• This was just too easy and obvious.
• Paddymelon- Muskmelon + Pademelon
• It sounded cute at first, but the focus of the first generation is supposed to be on North/South American animals and plants, and there were already too many Australian ones.
• Cassocherry- Cherry + Cassowary
• Yet another attempt at a cherry Florabeast, and a super excellent joke on its own, but there are already a LOT of birds and it's too far outside of the desired region anyway.
• Unacorn- Corn + Unicorn
• Ultimately, it was decided that a horse with an ear of corn sticking out of its forehead was just a little too weird, even for this series.
• Dandylion- Dandelion + Lion
• This would have had a yellow ruff of petals, along with a top hat and a monocle. Cute, but ultimately too obvious.
• Lychirp- Lychee + Bird
• Too generic to just be a "bird" and not a specific kind of bird, plus lychee don't grow in the Americas.
• Alpacotton- Cotton + Alpaca/Llama
• Alpaca needed to be used for a different Florabeast, one that fit much better with the theme, so a new Florabeast for both plant and animal were devised.
• Pawmegranate- Pomegranate + Dog
• I thought this was extremely clever, but the illustrator expressed her concerns about the outside of a pomegranate being used for the upper body of the beast, and the inside for the lower and underside. So, to avoid any horror-adjacent scenarios, the idea was dropped.